CWG scam: Court grants bail to a firm’s official (Lead)

New Delhi, March 15 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Tuesday granted bail to Binu Nanu, an official of a private firm who was held in judicial custody for his involvement in the Rs.600-crore overlays contract for the Commonwealth Games last year.

Justice Ajit Bharihoke allowed the bail application of Nanu on a personal bond of Rs.50,000 along with two sureties of like amount. He was arrested Jan 18.

“Binu Nanu is granted bail as he has completed 57 days in judicial custody,” the judge said.

The court asked Nanu to surrender his passport to the trial court and to join the investigation whenever the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) called him. It also told him not to try and tamper with evidence.

The court said he was released on bail because CBI officials submitted that they were not filing a charge sheet against him within the stipulated 60 days from the date of his arrest.

The CBI officials said they did not require Nanu’s custody any more because they had already investigated into the matter and questioned his employees, said Justice Bharihoke.

Nanu, the director of event management company GL Events-Meroform, said in the bail plea that he was remanded to judicial custody by a lower court on the conclusion of his four-day custodial interrogation by the CBI.

The CBI Jan 12 searched the offices and residences of Nanu and many others after it registered a case in the alleged overlays scam.

“Nanu’s wife Roopana is also one of his associates in the business,” the agency said.

The case, the fourth in connection with the Games, was registered against former Games Organising Committee director general V.K. Verma.

The CBI alleged that Verma and others entered into a “criminal conspiracy” with managing directors and directors of private companies in the award of contracts for overlays for different venues of the Games at “exorbitant rates”.

The overlays contracts are also under the scanner of the Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate.